USDA spends $900,000 to teach ‘meta-thinking’ about water to children

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) spent nearly $1 million on a project to teach kids “meta-thinking” about water, featuring rap songs and spoken-word performances.

“Global water awareness and future water security happens locally—one student, one teacher, and one lesson at a time,” the USDA said in a blog post Tuesday.

Using this premise, the government launched “ThinkWater,” a project to build water curricula based on “meta-thinking,” or getting kids to think about how they think about water.

The project, which has produced rap songs and a “spoken-word performance,” has cost taxpayers $900,000.

“Often we hear that better thinking is needed to address particularly prickly societal problems, business challenges, or scientific conundrums,” the USDA said. “ThinkWater is a national project supported by a $900,000 grant from USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). The project is designed by educators, scientists, and activists in partnership with the University of Wisconsin Extension to add thinking skills and awareness into existing water education lessons.”

The goal of the project is to change the behavior of children and get them to care about water using teachings “developed by the crowd.”